(CNN) -- Lauren Bacall, who died Tuesday at the age of 89, always said, not altogether happily, that she would be defined by her relationship with her husband, the great actor Humphrey Bogart.

She was not entirely wrong. It is hard to think of Bacall without thinking of Bogart. When she first arrived on screen in 1944 in "To Have and Have Not," at the ripe old age of 19, the thing that captivated audiences was not her beauty -- there were lots of pretty girls on screen -- so much as her preternatural steeliness. Here was a woman who could stand up to Bogart purring line by purring line, menacing look by menacing look, sneer by sneer, which may be why he wound up falling in love with her in real life. She was not a shrinking violet. She was a Venus flytrap.

Neal Gabler

But if Bacall was unflappable, she was different from her steely predecessors, the so-called tough "broads" of the 1930s like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. They were victims of the Depression, victims of male dominance, victims of bad breaks, victims of life in general. Those things made them feral, which is not an adjective anyone would ever have used on the self-contained, self-possessed Bacall. They were at war with life, hoping to find some good man with whom they might be able to make a truce. Bacall didn't seem to be at war with anyone, and she certainly didn't seem to think she needed a man to fulfill her. In fact, she was pretty much unpossessable. She did things on her terms.

If you think of Davis and Crawford as curs, Bacall was a cat. She arose at a time when World War II was ending and film noir was beginning, and she was the perfect noir woman. Noir was a style of film, dark and edgy, but it was also an attitude of post-war ennui and cynicism.

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall first appeared together in 1944's "To Have And Have Not." They collaborated on several other projects, including "The Big Sleep" -- pictured here -- and "Dark Passage." They were married in 1945. Bogart died of cancer in 1957, leaving behind Bacall and their two children. Bacall passed away in August 2014 at the age of 89. Let's see which other famous couples took their romance from reel to real:

Ricky Ricardo (Desi Arnaz) spent the better part of CBS' long-running "I Love Lucy" scolding his mischievous onscreen wife, played by Lucille Ball. Arnaz and Ball were married for 20 years and had two children together before divorcing in 1960.

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton's chemistry was so intense that they married and divorced twice. Taylor and Burton appeared in 11 films together between the '60s and '70s, including "Cleopatra" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen dated briefly before solidifying their professional relationship with 1972's "Play It Again, Sam." The pair produced eight films together over two decades. The 1977 romantic comedy "Annie Hall" took home four Academy Awards.

Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, who appeared in 1968's "The One and Only, Genuine, Original Family Band," have been romantically linked since 1983. The pair also co-starred in 1984's "Swing Shift" and 1987's "Overboard." "Love is love. Promises are promises. And devotion is part of it," Hawn told Oprah. "What does a piece of paper have to do with it for me? ... I met Kurt and we fell in love and we both agreed. Is there a reason to get married?"

After more than 20 years of marriage, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are still going strong. The pair, who appeared together in 1985's "Volunteers," smooched for the Kiss Cam at a Los Angeles Kings game in 2012.

Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder dated after co-starring in "Edward Scissorhands" in 1990. Although they broke up, Depp can't resist a co-star: he's engaged to Amber Heard, who starred alongside him in 2011's "The Rum Diary."

Courteney Cox and David Arquette met while filming "Scream" in 1996. The pair tied the knot in 1999, but they have since divorced. They have one daughter together.

It's fair to assume that Freddie Prinze Jr. thinks Sarah Michelle Gellar is all that. The actors met on the set of the 1997 thriller "I Know What You Did Last Summer," and tied the knot in Mexico in September 2002. The lovebirds, who have two kids, co-starred in "Scooby Doo" that same year.

Tom Cruise didn't jump on Oprah's couch during his courtship with second wife Nicole Kidman, but he did appear alongside the actress onscreen. They met on the set of 1990's "Days of Thunder," and starred together in 1999's "Eyes Wide Shut." Cruise later began dating Penélope Cruz, his co-star in 2001's "Vanilla Sky."

In 1999, a 23-year-old Reese Witherspoon married her "Cruel Intentions" co-star Ryan Phillippe. The actors welcomed two children together, but ended up splitting in 2006. Witherspoon married agent Jim Toth in 2011, and welcomed their first child together, Tennessee, in 2012.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck, or should we say "Bennifer," starred together in "Gigli." The 2003 film flopped at the box office, earning just over $3 million its opening weekend. The couple became engaged, but split in 2004. Affleck began dating his "Daredevil" co-star, Jennifer Garner, soon after. The couple married in 2005 and have three children together.

Nicole Ari Parker and Boris Kodjoe were married in 2005 after appearing together on Showtime's "Soul Food," which premiered in 2000. They have two children together.

Fans of "The Notebook" really seemed to root for Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling. They even won the award for best kiss at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards. Sadly, the pair split after three years. Gosling is now linked to Eva Mendes, his co-star in "The Place Beyond the Pines," and McAdams went on to date her "Midnight in Paris" co-star Michael Sheen for two years.

Love blossomed on the set of "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" for Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie; unfortunately, Pitt was still married to Jennifer Aniston at the time. They divorced in October 2005, about four months after the film hit theaters, and Pitt and Jolie have been together - and then some - ever since. The couple will now reunite on screen for the first time in nine years for "By the Sea," a drama that Jolie wrote and will direct.

Channing Tatum and Jenna Dewan (now Dewan-Tatum) first danced into each other's arms in 2006's "Step Up." The couple, who tied the knot in 2009, appeared together again in 2011's "10 Years," and welcomed daughter Everly in 2013.

Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson had been coy about their presumed off-screen romance since appearing together in 2008's "Twilight." Since the end of the franchise and a much-publicized cheating scandal in 2012, their would-be romance has been kaput.

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long began their on-and-off relationship after meeting on the set of 2007's "He's Just Not That Into You." They co-starred again in 2010's "Going the Distance." Barrymore went on to marry Will Kopelman in 2012, with whom she has two kids.

Anna Faris and Chris Pratt met on the 2007 set of "Take Me Home Tonight," which hit theaters in 2011. They were married in Bali in July 2009 and welcomed a son in 2012.

"Wanderlust" co-stars Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux went public with their relationship in 2011, and announced their engagement the next year.

Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively, who were married in South Carolina in 2012, co-starred in 2011's "Green Lantern." Lively previously dated her "Gossip Girl" co-star Penn Badgley until 2010, the same year Reynolds and actress Scarlett Johansson filed for divorce.

It's not exactly smooth sailing for Emily and Daniel on ABC's "Revenge," but the actors who play them, Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman, get along just fine off-screen.

"The Amazing Spider-Man" brought Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield together. The pair also co-star in the sequel, due out in May.

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard appeared together in 2010's "When in Rome" and 2012's "Hit and Run," which Shepard also wrote and co-directed. The pair later welcomed their first child, daughter Lincoln, in 2013, the same year they tied the knot.

"On the Road's" Garrett Hedlund and Kirsten Dunst have been spotted out together since filming the 2012 drama based on Jack Kerouac's novel. Hedlund plays Dean Moriarty in the movie, while Dunst plays Dean's second wife, Camille.

Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart

Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor

Diane Keaton and Woody Allen

Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell

Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson

Johnny Depp and Winona Ryder

David Arquette and Courteney Cox

Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar

Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman

Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez

Nicole Ari Parker and Boris Kodjoe

Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt

Jenna Dewan-Tatum and Channing Tatum

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart

Drew Barrymore and Justin Long

Anna Faris and Chris Pratt

Stephen Moyer and Anna Paquin

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds

Emily VanCamp and Josh Bowman

Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield

Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell

Garrett Hedlund and Kirsten Dunst

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Photos: Reel to real couples

Actress Lauren Bacall has died at 89

In noir, you trusted people at your peril. Bacall embodied that attitude perfectly in films like "The Big Sleep," "Dark Passage" and "Key Largo," all of which co-starred Bogart. There was something slippery and unknowable about her, some sort of concealment, which fit the whole noir ambiance. And it wasn't coincidental that the perfect noir woman was also the perfect complement and foil for the great existential hero of the movies, Bogart. She was the great existential romantic partner.

That attitude of hers seemed to arise from a personal grievance that Bacall developed growing up in New York as Betty Joan Perske, a Jew who was remade into a cinematic gentile by the anti-Semitic director Howard Hawks. As Bacall tells it in her first memoir, "By Myself," Hawks was a Pygmalion who discovered her and then taught her how to move, how to talk (that deep, sultry husk of a voice) and how to act.

But the umbrage she felt toward Hawks in making her deny herself may have been the razor's edge she brought to her performances. She was always forced to be in camouflage -- a hidden Jew. She even raised her children as Episcopalians, Bogart's religion, because she feared what might happen to them as Jews. For noir, the edge certainly worked.

But the persona outlasted its time. Well before Bogart died of cancer in 1957, Bacall's career had begun to slide, in part because noir had begun to slide, relegated to B movies. She was able to reinvent herself in romantic comedies like "How to Marry a Millionaire," where she turned her sultriness into a kind of brisk efficiency, a no-nonsense woman for the 1950s, that contrasted with co-star Marilyn Monroe's flouncy availability, but the glory days were pretty much over. In retrospect, she hadn't been so much a star as she was a flare.

Her late great triumphs were on stage -- in "Applause," a musical adaptation of "All About Eve," and "Woman of the Year," a musical adaptation of the 1942 film of the same name, both of which earned her Tonys. Still, the fact that she was reprising roles originally played by Bette Davis and Katharine Hepburn respectively was a sign that Bacall's own feline charm had not endured. In the end, she was a glamorous figure from another, darker era. . . and the wife of Humphrey Bogart.